• Backlash?
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The environmental onslaught is certainly not over. but I detect a welcome reaction from those responsible people outside the industry who feel that the game of thumping the lorry has really gone too far and needs to be redressed.
There was, for example, an excellent article by Michael Bailey in The Times on Friday under the title Learning to control 40-ton scapegoats. A splendid piece of perspective, with the emphasis on the "scapegoats".
Although he was at pains to put the transport case, he didn't pretend that everything in the garden was lovely; his final paragraph will not please every haulier, but I agree with every word of it. This is what he said: "Meanwhile it remains astonishing that the road transport industry does so little about its appalling, and to some extent unjustified, public image. The lack of suitable track is not the industry's fault, but irresponsible routing and inconsiderate drivers are. To an industry so under siege the inculcation of good manners among its members would be of incalculable value."